n to him, and
they had come over to England with some notion of Bournemouth; but
the doctor in London had thought not, and urged their going home. "All
Europe is damp, you know, and dark as a pocket in winter," he ended.

There had been nothing about Burnamy, and March decided that he must
wait to see his wife if he wished to know anything, when the general,
who had been silent, twisted his head towards him, and said without
regard to the context, "It was complicated, at Weimar, by that young
man in the most devilish way. Did my daughter write to Mrs. March
about--Well it came to nothing, after all; and I don't understand how,
to this day. I doubt if they do. It was some sort of quarrel, I suppose.
I wasn't consulted in the matter either way. It appears that parents are
not consulted in these trifling affairs, nowadays." He had married his
daughter's mother in open defiance of her father; but in the glare of
his daughter's wilfulness this fact had whitened into pious obedience.
"I dare say I shall be told, by-and-by, and shall be expected to approve
of the result."

A fancy possessed March that by operation of temperamental laws General
Triscoe was no more satisfied with Burnamy's final rejection than with
his acceptance. If the engagement was ever to be renewed, it might be
another thing; but as it stood, March divined a certain favor for the
young man in the general's attitude. But the affair was altogether too
delicate for comment; the general's aristocratic frankness in dealing
with it might have gone farther if his knowledge had been greater; but
in any case March did not see how he could touch it. He could only say,
He had always liked Burnamy, himself.

He had his good qualities, the general owned. He did not profess to
understand the young men of our time; but certainly the fellow had the
instincts of a gentleman. He had nothing to say against him, unless in
that business with that man--what was his name?

"Stoller?" March prompted. "I don't excuse him in that, but I don't
blame him so much, either. If punishment means atonement, he had the
opportunity of making that right very suddenly, and if pardon means
expunction, then I don't see why that offence hasn't been pretty well
wiped out.

"Those things are not so simple as they used to seem," said the general,
with a seriousness beyond his wont in things that did not immediately
concern his own comfort or advantage.

LXXVI.

In the mean time Mrs. M